Quotes from NxtWave Students

General

The experiences I have had at the national conferences have infused in me the NxtWave guiding principles and have provided me with a new perspective. I have pushed myself to develop a depth of knowledge, to be a leader, to articulate a vision and to contribute knowledge to the profession (Rita Soulen).

I believe that these activities have allowed me to incorporate the NxtWave guiding principles into my professional life. I have truly had the opportunity to gain knowledge about the school library profession through my interaction with school library researchers and leading members of the school library preparation community. I have steadily worked to become a visible and engaged leader in the AASL community. (April Dawkins)

Focus meetings have been a very interesting part of the “conference experience” because they have led me to special interest paths of investigation for me personally. When I chose to attend these meetings, many times I intended to step out of my comfort zone so that I may experience something new and expand upon my views of librarianship. (Joanne Koukoulas)

Attending these conferences helped me to develop the NxtWave guiding principles and incorporate them into my own studies and teaching. These opportunities provided professional growth and a chance to network and meet new people. I believe that the networking opportunities that conferences provide are one of the strongest selling points for attendance. Since many school librarians work in isolation from other librarians, the possibility of meeting others in the profession and learning from them is important. (Kim Gangwish)

My favorite part of the conferences I have attended in Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco is the NxtWave meetings. I see all the Virginia cohort often, yet I enjoy seeing my Nebraska friends and my South Carolina friend, April. All of us are at different places in the journey but we are all on the journey. The questions that they have asked at a meeting may not have been pertinent to me at the time but I do find myself looking through my notes to find the answer when I got to that particular place in my journey. These conversations have been most beneficial to me. (Angie Branyon)

Spending time with and getting to know the other members of the cohort during conference attendance has been an invaluable experience both professionally and personally. Prior to this program, I didn’t personally know any of the other members. Conference attendance and our NxtWave sessions have provided the opportunity to share experiences and discover similar interests. (Jo O’Garro)

I am grateful to the NxtWave program for giving me the opportunity to learn from those on the national stage how to be a better librarian and how to serve the profession. The national conferences will always be a highlight of this program for me. (Sara Churchill)

As I enter the final semester of the NxtWave program, the biggest benefit of attending the four conferences were the relationships I was able to establish because of the opportunity to meet face-to-face with other professionals. I was able to make personal connections with researchers like Dr. Subramaniam and young adult authors like G. Neri. (Stephanie Schnabel)

My research directions have changed over the past year. I am interested in both the growth of school website design and children and young adult literature, and could not make up my mind which area to focus on. I was a member of ISTE, ALSC and YALSA. (Sabrina Carnesi)

ALA Midwinter 2014: Philadelphia

The first meetings and exhibits in Philadelphia provided me with a general idea of what my future may entail. It was a whirlwind of new people, expectations, and my first ALA national event. (Bree Ruzzi)

In order to articulate an informed vision for the future, it is necessary to understand the school library profession’s past and present. Networking at conferences was one way for me to learn more about this. At ALA Midwinter Philadelphia I attended the interdivisional committee meeting of AASL and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) on Information Literacy. Although I am not a member of the committee, I was able to participate in a discussion concerning the scope and sequence of teaching information literacy skills P-21 and how the organizations can work together in order to ensure that students who enter college have the necessary information literacy skills to be successful. (Kim Gangwish)

In Philadelphia, I attended sessions sponsored by the Office for Technology and Information Policy. Those sessions caused me to think deeply about student privacy and the ways in which network filters impact the types of information students can access at school or on school owned devices. Some of my perceptions and beliefs about privacy and student access were tested. It is an invigorating experience to be in a room with people who are challenging the status quo and through those discussions your own knowledge deepens and your perceptions broaden. (Stacy Lickteig)

ALA Annual 2014: Las Vegas

I felt this was my first opportunity to display the second guiding principle of NxtWave: to be a visible and engaged leader in my professional community (Howard, 2015). I also had the opportunity to meet some of my favorite young adult authors such as Neal Shusterman and Ellen Hopkins, and had the experience of a lifetime seeing Stan Lee speak about the importance of libraries. (Bree Ruzzi)

Several events stand out from that conference. The first was that I saw a session in the online scheduler called “CLASS Research Report” that was sponsored by AASL. Since AASL and was about research I thought it might be relevant to my doctoral program so I added it to my schedule. I was amazed to walk in and saw one of our NxtWave professors and another professor I recognized from VAASL conferences as an ODU professor sitting at the podium table. The topic discussed in that session was the first time I began to realize that I had the potential to be contributing to research affecting the school library profession at a national level. I left there with a strong desire to have an impact. (Lois Wine)

More than anything by being a NxtWave scholar and trying to live by the guiding principles of NxtWave in my professional and academic life I find myself wanting just say one thing: Thank you. (Michael King)

ALA conventions have encouraged me to think outside my school librarian world as leaders from other fields were honored. In Las Vegas, Laurence Copel, youth outreach librarian, from the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans was recognized for her exemplary service under adverse conditions in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. This is an excellent reminder to me that librarianship involves far more than getting great books into students’ hands and helping scholars with the research process. Working within the walls of the school is commendable, but as a librarian I need to serve the larger community in which I work and live. (Stephanie Burdic)

ALA Midwinter 2015: Chicago

Also at 2015 Midwinter, I met with the ESLS section (Educators of School Librarians Section). This was a wonderful opportunity to network within the school library preparation community and to learn more about their initiatives and the accreditation process. We also had small group discussions about how preparation programs run their internships/practicum. (April Dawkins)

I also had the opportunity to meet with Helen Adams. Angie Branyon and I are interested in intellectual freedom and censorship issues, and Helen is a nationally known advocate for intellectual freedom. (April Dawkins)

The national conferences also allowed me the opportunity to be a visible and engaged leader. For example, I was a part of a panel discussion at ALA Midwinter Philadelphia that discussed membership and ALA and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). This focus group had a great discussion about waning memberships in the organizations and what can be done to change that. (Kim Gangwish)

ALA Annual 2015: San Francisco

Arriving in San Francisco for the second ALA National Conference, I was greeted by the news of the Supreme Court Ruling on Marriage Equality, which set the stage for an exciting weekend of freedom of choice, expression, speech, and life. (Bree Ruzzi)

Finally, conference attendance offered opportunities to create and contribute to the knowledge base. I was fortunate enough to have my conference proposal accepted for ALA San Francisco (and AASL Columbus). The opportunity to share my focus on deaf students with an audience at a national level was wonderful. I wasn’t sure what to expect in San Francisco as far as interest level was concerned. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people who came to my presentation. I was able to share information about school libraries and their service to deaf students with approximately 30 attendees. (Kim Gangwish)

Hearing the collaborative efforts and the debates on complex issues like technology and censorship throughout the country is more than just stimulating or an exercise in rhetoric. It paints a picture of the mosaic nature of schools, students, and teachers that face issues everyday that are so personal and unique that consideration at a mega-organization level can so quickly be overlooked, missed or worse still misdiagnosed. As a NxtWave scholar I have to say this engaging experience with others from all over the country and even from within my own state has allowed me to see the ramifications of change and to understand the machinations of organizations and the education sector for its complex reality (Michael King)

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